We Americans are kind of soft. When we say Machete it kind of sounds like "ma-shed-ee." When Machete himself says it, it sounds as sharp as the blade itself: "Ma-chay-tay." Danny Trejo really emphasizes the correct Mexican pronunciation of his latest character.

If there were Suicide Men, Danny Trejo might be their leader. Although, he wouldn't have to worry about committing social suicide, because nobody's going to mess with him. His rugged face, chest of tattoos, handlebar moustache and long man hair have gotten him cast as bad guys in movies for the past 25 years.

Machete is a hero though. A betrayed former federale, he now works as a day laborer. Instead of Home Depot jobs, Machete finds himself hired to kill an anti-immigration senator. It's a setup though to make the senator a champion of border patrol. Well, Machete doesn't go down like that so he takes out the bad guys with his trademark blade, in over-the-top gory Robert Rodriguez style.

In the movie, Trejo wears badass leather. In person, he wore a tan suit that hid his inked up chest. Trejo was discovered by Hollywood when he was in prison, when director Andrey Konchalovskiy cast him in Runaway Train. With the success he found, Trejo has always given back, counseling inmates and drug addicts on finding the right path. Still, based on his movies, most fans might be surprised to find Trejo smiling and giggling. Guess all that badass stuff is acting!

SG: Is this how you dress when you're not making movies about badass motorcycle guys?

DT: When I'm not killing people. [Laughs] Yeah, this is actually my Eddie Bunker suit. Eddie Bunker was one of my dearest, dearest friends. He always said, "Have a tan linen suit for summer days." He was a bank robber but he always dressed really well.

Suicide Girls: Who makes your suit today?

Danny Trejo: You know what? I bought it in Thailand. I saw it and he'd just passed away so I bought it in his honor and I always just wear it to nice hot summer days, special occasions because you can dress nice and even though it's hot, you're not uncomfortable. It breathes well. That's what he said, "It breathes."

SG: Another interesting thing about your appearance though is tattoos. Are you familiar with the Suicide Girls?

DT: Yes, absolutely.

SG: For us it's alternative beauty. Was it ever trouble for you having tattoos like that?

DT: No. I came from an era when tattoos meant bad. In the early 60s, the tattoos were either if you weren't in the army, you were a troublemaker. If you weren't in the navy, you were a troublemaker. Most of my tattoos are prison tattoos, so you kind of knew I was in trouble.

SG: Do you like girls with tattoos?

DT: You know, it doesn't matter. To me, tattoos are accessories. Beauty comes from within anyway. Even though we love beautiful packaging, if they're not beautiful inside they ain't worth a shit.

SG: I know from meeting you over the years that you've been happy playing villains and badasses. How did you feel about your transition to leading hero?

DT: Well, you always bring your best no matter what you're doing. It just means you've got to bring your best every day. Usually when you have a part in a movie, you show up for three, four days, bang, bang, bang, you're gone. Well, when you're the lead, you're there every day. There's no "you're not on the call sheet." You're there because basically it's your movie. Any time I work I always work like it's my movie, so the transition wasn't bad. Everybody asks me, "Are you going to change?" I'm not changing. My situation's changing a little bit because now I can't walk down the street, but other than that, nothing's changed.

SG: Is this the first time you've been on the movie's poster?

DT: Well, I've been on other posters but never just me. People in England, boy, when I was in England doing autograph signings, people in England were getting that tattooed on their back. The picture is a gorgeous picture and Machete is the first Latino superhero. So it's kind of a unique picture and I guess they didn't want to put the Virgin Mary up there.

SG: We Americans say it kind of soft, like "ma-shed-ee." Should we say it "ma-chay-tay" like you?

DT: You know, say it however you want. Just go see the movie.

SG: Even the announcer who says Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again at the end says it soft.

DT: That's Robert Rodriguez. That's him. I didn't even know it. We were arguing who it was, who it was. Finally Robert said, "Machete, he kills the bad guys and gets the women." I thought, "Wow, it is you, Robert."

SG: After you'd done the trailer for Grindhouse, were you surprised to find out what the rest of the story was when Rodriguez finished the script?

DT: Robert and I had been talking about this movie since we did Desperado. He came up to me and said, "You know what? You're perfect for this character that I want to do. It's Machete and he's a badass. He's going to be the first Latino superhero. He doesn't take any step backwards. He stands up for the downtrodden poor." I said cool, and after we did the trailer, it kind of took on a life of its own because everybody loved the trailer. So Robert just said, "We've got to do this movie."

SG: Did you imagine back then it would have to do with immigration and a senator and border patrol?

DT: You've got to remember, the idea for the movie became a reality before any of that happened. That was just God giving us some PR I guess.

SG: Do you weigh in on the immigration issue?

DT: No. I know that smarter minds are going to prevail. Something has to be done, I don't know what. I think in the next five or six years, this whole planet is going to be changing so it's like I'm just doing whatever I can do for whoever needs help. That's what I still do.

SG: Do you still work with drug centers and prisons?

DT: Absolutely. I still work for Western Pacific Med/Corp in Glendale. I work for them and I do a lot of their PR. I work for community and schools which deals with gang intervention. I speak at high schools, junior highs, juvenile halls, youth authorities and state penitentiaries.

SG: In the last few years, have there been new ways of battling addiction or avoiding a life of crime?

DT: Right now there's a huge budget cut to cut certain modalities of drug treatment, methadone being one of them. That's going to be chaotic if that happens because right now if they cut the budget for Medi-cal drug treatment, they'll literally turn about 59,000 drug addicts loose on L.A. So the drug cartels love the fact, "Yeah, stop that" so they'll have all new customers.

SG: So not so much new methods, but there are always new problems to solve.

DT: Right, exactly. There's always new problems.

SG: Are you making progress on that issue?

DT: Well, we're dealing with Governor Schwarzenegger and we're dealing with Sheriff Lee Baca who wrote us a letter to say, "Hey, we can't do that." He understands because he's down here in the trenches. Schwarzenegger who's up in Sacramento, he's getting bad advice as to what to do.

SG: When people meet you for the first time, are they surprised that you're all smiles and laughs?

DT: Yeah, a lot of them. A lot of them don't know how to approach me so I have to disarm them immediately, just say hello. I say hello to everybody. I say, "Hi, how are you," walk up because you see people standing there with a camera and they don't know how to approach you.

SG: When did you find your peace?

DT: Oh, a long time ago. I think that when I dedicated my life to helping other people, this peace comes the minute you start helping somebody. I ran into a kid one time at about 12 o'clock at night at Jons Market in Winnetka, which is out in the San Fernando Valley. I love Jons because it used to be Vons but the Mexicans bought it. You can still see the V under the J, but I was walking across the parking lot and this kid stopped me and he was collecting the baskets. He said, "Hey, Mr. Trejo." I said, "Yeah, what's up?" He says, "I want to thank you. I was in juvenile hall two years ago and you came up and talked. You really made an impact on my life." Wow, what a blessing to be able to make an impact on somebody's life. That is worth everything in the world, just being able to make an impact on someone's life.

SG: Boy, you hear so often that helping others is the key to happiness. Who do so many people still not get it?

DT: You look in the backgrounds of all the people, especially in Hollywood, who are having problems in your lives. I'm not talking divorce and normal kind of problems. I'm talking about drugs, going to prison, going to jail. You look at them and they're not giving anything back. That's one of the reasons why. It's all selfish, self serving. It's all what do I get, what do I get, what do I get. Until you get the eye off of you and start talking about what can I do for you, that's when you find the peace. That's when life gets better.